Article Summary
- Printhead capping technology is designed to prevent drying, condensation at the nozzle, and capture ink ejected from the nozzles.
- When designing a printhead capping unit, developers should consider its impact on possible print streaks.
- Key elements of a printhead capping environment include printbar sealed enclosure, humidity controls, moisturizer materials, and replenisher.
A capping unit (Fig. 1) is often used to prevent inkjet printheads from drying out while not actively printing. However, sometimes the capping unit may cause streaks in the output.
In this article, we review the functions of the capping unit, how it can cause unacceptable output, and how to overcome these.